Skip to main content
  • Call Now
  • Request Info
  • Menu

Search form

  • JWU Main Site
  • jwuLink
  • Apply Now
  • Hide nav
  • Request Info
  • 1.855.598.1881

JWU

  • Academics
    Academics
    Academics Home Academic Calendar Online Catalog and Student Handbook On-Campus Programs
    • Business
      • BS – Accounting
      • BS – Advertising & Marketing Communications
      • Doctor of Business Administration
      • BS – Business Studies
      • BS – Digital Marketing & Social Media
      • BS – Fashion Merchandising & Retailing
      • BS – Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship
      • BS - Marketing
      • BSBA – Business Administration
      • BSBA – Entrepreneurship
      • BSBA – Human Resource Management
      • BSBA – International Business
      • BSBA – Management
      • BSBA – Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • BSBA – Enterprise Risk Management
      • MS – Global Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development
      • MS - Finance
      • AS – Business Administration
      • Accounting
      • BS – Finance
      • Business Communication
      • Communication for Change
      • Foundational Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • MS – Operations & Project Management
      • Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • Technical Writing & Editing
    • MBA
      • Master of Business Administration (MBA)
      • MBA – Finance
      • MBA – Hospitality
      • MBA – Human Resource Management
      • MBA – Information Security/Assurance
      • MBA – Organizational Psychology
      • MBA – Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • MBA – Organizational Leadership
      • MBA – Nonprofit Management
      • MBA – Sport Leadership
      • MBA – General (One Year)
      • MBA – Global Fashion Merchandising Management
      • MBA – Project Management
    • Criminal Justice
      • MS – Criminal Justice
      • MPA – Criminal Justice
    • Culinary
      • BS – Baking & Pastry Arts & Food Service Management
      • MS – Food Safety
      • BS – Culinary Arts & Food Service Management
      • Professional Craft Brewing
      • BS – Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship
      • BS – Food Industry Compliance Management
    • Engineering
    • Health Science
      • BS – Public Health
      • Public Health
      • Sports Nutrition
    • Hospitality
      • BS – Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship
      • BS – Food Industry Compliance Management
      • BS – Hospitality Management
      • BS – Hotel & Lodging Management
      • BS – Residential Hospitality Management
      • BS – Sports, Entertainment, Event – Management
      • BS – Tourism & Hospitality Management
      • MBA – Hospitality
      • MS - Hospitality Management
      • MS – Global Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development
      • MS – Sport Leadership
      • Food Compliance
      • Hospitality
      • Quality Assurance in Hospitality
    • HR Management
      • BSBA - Human Resource Management
      • MBA - Human Resource Management
      • MS – Human Resource Management
    • Liberal Studies
      • BS – Liberal Studies
    • Nonprofit Management
      • Nonprofit Management
      • MS – Nonprofit Management
      • MPA – Nonprofit Management
      • MBA - Nonprofit Managment
    • Psychology
      • BS – Psychology
      • MBA – Organizational Psychology
      • MS – Organizational Psychology
    • Public Administration
      • MPA – General
      • MPA – Criminal Justice
      • MPA – Nonprofit Management
      • MPA – Homeland Security
      • MPA – Human Resource Management
    • Political Science
      • BS - Political Science
    • Sport Administration
      • BS – Sports, Entertainment, Event — Management
      • MBA – Sport Leadership
      • MS – Sport Leadership
    • Technology
      • BS – Computer Science
      • BS – Digital Marketing & Social Media
      • MBA – Information Security/Assurance
      • MS - Data Analytics
      • MS – Instructional Design & Technology
    • Sociology
      • BA - Sociology
  • Admissions
    Admissions
    JWU Admissions
    • Admissions Home
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • Apply Online
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Transfer Students
    • Doctoral Admissions
    • On-Campus Admissions
    • International Admissions
    • Career Coach
    • Returning Students
    • Tuition and Fees
    • JWU Military
  • Financial Aid
    Financial Aid
    JWU Financial Aid
    • Financial Aid Home
    • Tuition and Fees
    • Scholarships and Grants
    • Military Benefits
  • Student Services
    Student Services
    JWU Student Services
    • Student Services Home
    • Academic Calendar
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Resources
    • Commencement
    • Technical Resources
  • Corporate Partnerships
    Corporate Partnerships
  • Blog
    Blog
  • About
    About
    About JWU
    • About JWU Online Home
    • Read Student Testimonials
    • Tour an Online Classroom
    • Two JWU Grads, One MBA Journey
    • Learn from Experienced Faculty
    • Meet Our Team
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Discover the JWU Difference
    • JWU Athletics
    • Attend a Virtual Open House
    • Video Library
    • Priorities Survey for Online Learners
  • Apply Now
    Apply Now
  • jwuLink
    jwuLink
  • JWU Main Site
    JWU Main Site

You are here

JWU Online > Blog > "It was time for me to start thinking about what was next"
Career Catalyst

Welcome to Career Catalyst, our blog featuring helpful continuing education and career-related articles written by our faculty and staff. From study and motivation tips to career planning and interview techniques, we cover it all. Make sure to check back regularly, because we’re always posting new articles designed to help you get more out of your education and career.

Follow Us
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Google Plus
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • PinInterest

"It was time for me to start thinking about what was next"

search_icon

Search

mail_icon

Subscribe

 

"It was time for me to start thinking about what was next"

March 11th, 2019
by Kelly Smith
woman with bird on shoulder
woman with bird on shoulder

Just about a year ago now, I was presented with an opportunity I ultimately could not pass up: a chance to re-enter the workforce and join the awesome staff at JWU’s College of Online Education. As the mother of four small children (I guess I can’t say “small” anymore as the oldest is now 14), including one who is profoundly disabled, I was on the fence about returning to the workforce.

On the one hand, it had been 14 years since I worked full time. I was quite nervous about getting back to the “real world” (although anyone who stays home with their kids knows just how real that truly is). As hard as it was at times, I sincerely loved being home with my children. I also knew I was fortunate; not every parent who would love to stay home can afford to do so. It wasn’t always easy, and more than once I had to return to waiting tables part-time at night just to help make ends meet. But, my husband and I felt strongly about one of us being home with the kids and ultimately we made it happen.

On the other hand, it had been 14 year since I worked full time. Fourteen years since I spent my days around adults, using my brain for something other than remembering when my daughter’s various appointments were and who had which activity on what day and what time the birthday party was next weekend and … did I feed the dog? By the fall of 2017, all of my kids (today ages 14, 12, 11 and 7) were finally in school all day and it was time for me to start thinking about what was next for me.

I was a reporter and editor in my previous life, B.C. (before children). After earning two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Rhode Island — one in journalism, the other in English — I worked for Beacon Communications as both a reporter for their newspapers and an editor for one of their magazines. I even had my own column! In spite of the measly pay, it was a job I sincerely loved. Over the first few years of motherhood, I, unable to quit the job entirely, went from full time to part-time and eventually freelance. By the time my disabled daughter was a year or two, it was evident her needs were much more involved than we had hoped and it was time to move on. Truth be told, there are days I still miss it, especially the people I met along the way.

Getting out into the community and befriending so many of its different characters was something I never tired of. Whether it was spending the day getting my brand-new white tennis shoes filthy on the banks of Buckeye Brook with Steve Insana, the brook’s quirky self-appointed caretaker (and later fearing for my life as he barreled along Tidewater Drive in his beat-up old red pickup truck, laughing joyously) or catching my first (and only) bluefish in the waters of Narragansett Bay with Jody King, a fisherman I’d met after his brother Tracy died in the Station Nightclub fire, each week was a new adventure. And then there was the time I was on assignment at Toll Gate High School and as I walking through the halls, the hustle and bustle of students racing from one class to the next, the chatter of teens and all their silly nonsense filling the air, I was taken by an overwhelming sense of belonging. Suddenly, in that moment, I decided I needed to be there. I needed to teach. Writing, specifically.

To make a long story short, which, according to my friends is a joke as I am incapable of such a thing, I announced this new career choice to my husband and set a plan in motion to make it happen. By May of 2004, at eight months pregnant with my first child, I completed my first two terms at Providence College and was just one year away (give or take) from earning my teaching certification.

I never went back.

Motherhood consumed me. Though we are happily adjusted today, caring for a disabled child, as well as two other small children, was a lot. Too much at times. Imagine this: a precocious (an overused word, but surely fitting in this case) four-year-old girl, who was already reading and writing and more than ready for Head Start. An ornery 2-year-old boy, with boundless energy and an impish smile that won his mother over every time he misbehaved. And an adorable one-year-old-girl with special needs, whose eyes speak to your soul, with three, four, sometimes five appointments each week. Dad works his tail off each day and hits the books studying to become a CPA each night (and most of every weekend). Mom, by any account, is exhausted.

Yep, that was my life. But we muscled through and long before our youngest was born in January 2012, I had this whole motherhood thing down pretty well. I talked about going back to school, but never pulled the trigger. Before I knew it, all the kids were in school and I started to wonder what was next for me. One thing I had decided was I no longer wanted to become a high school English teacher. It wasn’t that I no longer wanted to teach, on the contrary I still very much wanted that, but it just didn’t make sense anymore. There were a number of reasons I felt this way, but the biggest one was because I wanted to teach writing, not literature, and high school English teachers are expected to do both.

So, there I was, 41 years old, with six full hours every weekday entirely to myself. At first, it was glorious! I cleaned in peace, shopped alone, met friends for lunch, caught up on my favorite shows. Somedays, I did nothing at all. I even napped!

Soon, that started to get old and I was ready for something else. A new opportunity came along and I swooped it up without hesitation. I started my job here at JWU COE (which, by the way, I love), and it didn’t take long for me to think beyond the job itself and wonder what this new path meant for me. Should I get my master’s? What program would I take? What is my end game? Do I want to stay where I am and work my way up the ladder? Would I like to join the “loud corner” of the office and work with our fantastic academic advising team? Should I think about joining our faculty and teach writing? Maybe even follow my first true love and charm my way onto the PR and communications team here at the COE? (And they thought I was writing this out of the goodness of my heart. *wink*)

Truth be told, I am not sure. But what I do know is I need my master’s degree to move forward with any of those possibilities. So, here I go ... 

To learn more about Johnson & Wales University’s online master degree programs, complete the “Request Info” form on this page or call 855-JWU-1881 or email [email protected]

Blog Categories: 
General
Online Learning
March 11th, 2019
by Kelly Smith
Back to Blog
next
Next Post

Three Ways Airbnb Has Shaken up the Hospitality Industry

Read More >
prev
Previous Post

BS Residential Hospitality Management Degree: A Closer Look

Read More >
Featured Blogs

What is a DBA Degree (and Why Should You Earn One)?

January 15th, 2021 – For business professionals who are looking to give themselves a competitive edge, an advanced degree... Read More

7 Ways to Prepare for Your Post-Grad Career

January 14th, 2021 – Graduating from an undergraduate program is a huge achievement! But as graduation inches closer, many... Read More

Want Job Security? Consider These 8 Careers

January 14th, 2021 – Could the job of your dreams also be a job with a steady paycheck, even when the economy is at its... Read More

Fall 2020 Dean's List Announced

January 8th, 2021 – The Johnson & Wales University College of Online Education is pleased to announce our summer term... Read More

COVID Chronicles: Is It Safe To Eat Out?

December 18th, 2020 – JWU professors, like students, are experiencing the “new normal” during the global pandemic, COVID-19... Read More

Older Stories
Kelly Smith's picture
AuthorKelly Smith
Kelly Smith joined the COE staff in April 2018 as an academic administrative coordinator. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Kelly is a 1993 graduate of Cranston High School West and later went on to earn degrees in both English and journalism from the University of Rhode Island. She is the author of That Goodbye Thing, an e-book available only on Amazon. Besides writing, Kelly loves to travel, being around friends and family, watching Patriots football and listening to great music (especially live shows!). Her favorites range from bands like The Beatles and Maroon 5 to singer/songwriters such as Alanis Morissette and Billy Joel. Her hobbies include reading, making photo collages and dabbling in graphic art. She is also mildly obsessed with the color purple. Kelly does NOT enjoy washing dishes or cleaning the bathroom, though she doesn't mind doing the laundry and will even iron her husband's dress shirts on occasion. Kelly lives in Warwick, RI, with her husband Corey and their four children.
  • Now accepting applications
  • Apply now
  • Admissions

Career Coach

Continue to Career Coach

You are now leaving Johnson & Wales’ (JWU) site and going to a site not operated by us. We are not responsible for the content or availability of any site other than our own.The information provided on the site is provided by Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI). EMSI has indicated to us the information provided is fair and reasonable. We do not make any representations or warranties, nor do we accept liability or responsibility, as to the accuracy or use of the information.  Additional links may also be provided, including those relating to employment opportunities. 

You are responsible for performing due diligence, such as ensuring the listings are for actual jobs and that your private and personal information are protected, when using or relying on information from any site.

 

Johnson & Wales University
115 Cedar St.
Providence, RI 02903
855.598.1881

© 2020 Johnson & Wales University
Privacy Policy  Nondiscrimination Policy

 

  • Contact Us
  • Accreditation & Approvals
  • Online Student Consumer Information
  • Catalogs
  • Handbooks
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
Back to top